Early start times

early start times start tomorrow

 

This not an April Fools joke. We start summer schedule tomorrow. Please sign in by 0830 and be ready to play by 0900. Weather updates will be available by 0730 in the case of inclement weather.

Officially Summer?

Well, we are now officially into the summer program. That means a couple things. First is that we will be seeing a lot of our players packing up and heading home for the summer. We want to wish them God Speed and safe travels as they return home. We want to remind them to pick up a registration form before they leave or they can get it off the internet. To save the ten dollars, the application must be returned by October. The second thing is that we will start the games earlier starting Tuesday. Please check in by 0830 as the first pitch will be thrown out to start the game at 0900 sharp.

 

Today we had five teams so we played a three team American League game on Gessler and a two team National League game on Servicemaster.

 

The hitting team of Gazarak, Coffman, Dampier, Edwards, Drouillard, Hill, Denny, Pepin, Lopez, and Wells was managed by Steve Hill. While playing great defense through the first three innings, their bats were cold and they were shut out during that span. The sitting team of Gonzalez, Busch, Witmer, DeRidder, Cuscovitch, Smith, JD Davis, Zelazny, Andrews, and Hawbaker was managed by Freddie G. They too played great D while not lighting up the score board. A scant four runs were all they could muster through the first three. The fielding team managed by Larry Powell was comprised of Rivera, Wiltshire, Herbie O, Giorando, King, Butler, Hartley, Poke, Powell, and Carpenter. Their defense was also pretty awesome and due to the strong defense demonstrated by their opponent they too had limited offensive success as they managed three runs.

 

In the fourth inning the bats came alive for Steve's team. They batted nine batters en-route to scoring five runs and taking the outright lead. Freddie G's team managed one run and left three men on base. Unfortunately for Larry's team they were held scoreless. The ranking did not change as a result of the runs scored in the fifth as the hitting and sitting team both scored twice while the fielding team managed but one. In the  sixth both Steve and Freddie's teams batted their entire lineups and each scored four runs. Larry's folks were held scoreless but  stranded two runners in scoring position.

 

So going into the final inning we had two teams with eleven and one with four. It was still anyone's game as we just needed some of the sleeping bats to wake up and have a couple well placed hits for extra bases. It is hard to believe but there were only five extra base hits all game. That talks to the solid defense played by all three teams. Logic says something needs to change.

 

Tied for most runs, Steve's team failed to score in the top of the inning. Again they stranded two crucial runners. Meantime, Freddie's folks put together six singles and one double by Terry Smith to score five runs and take Steve's team down. Finding themselves down by twelve runs Larry's team had their work cut out for them if they wanted to win (or even take over second place). Unfortunately they never mounted a charge and failed to score. Final score Freddy G 16, Steve Hill 11, and Larry Powell 4.

 

Key Performances

Jose Rivera         4 for 4

Charlie Giordano    3 for 4

Dave Hartley            3 for 4

 

Pat Drouillard        4 for 4

Steve Hill                3 for 4

 

Freddy Gonzalez    4 for 5

Brian Busch            4 for 5

Donnie Witmer        4 for 5

Al Andrews            5 for 5

JD Davis                winning pitcher

Video Slide Show

Don LaMay sent this in.  Pretty impressive Don!

http://animoto.com/play/m25Rik1EYI6adIEhKrGizA

The Annual Lakeland vs Winter Haven Games

While the weather was a bit chilly, it did not seem to keep the crowds away as they braved the temperatures in record numbers to see their favorite players. This year's event included a first ever skills competition before the games. The hitting competition was won by Reg Finnegan. The throwing competition was won by John Carpenter. In the running event the under 70 winner was Jose Rivera, while Raul Torres took it for the over 70 group. Pitching awards went to Arvil Waddell for the over 70 and there was a tie for the under 70 group between Miguel Gonzalez and Rick Brock. Congratulations to all the winners. We hope to see a bigger field next year in a couple of the events.

There were four games played between the leagues. A couple of the games were nail biters while the other two were out and out routs. The first was the game between teams composed of players over seventy years of age. Unfortunately, the score sheets were not turned in so it is impossible to recap it properly. Needless to say, the Lakeland team came loaded for bear and seemed to score at will. I cannot remember a more awesome display of clutch hitting. From top to bottom, they had their a game. If I am not mistaken they scored the max runs in seven innings. The lone highlight for the Winter Haven team was a triple by Richie Marino. Final score, Lakeland "too many to count" and Winter Haven "considerably less". Congratulations to the Lakeland team.

The next game to finish was the game between Al Andrews Winter Haven team (Torres, Andrews, Wiltshire, Cuscovitch, Scarbrough, M.Gonzalez, Smith, Busch, Pepein, Denny, and McLellan) and the Lakeland team of Pierce, Remington, King, McClellan, Klinkers, Wise, Pokey, Sharp, Wheelock, Bernie, and Vince.

Lakeland scored two in the first but lost the inning as Cuscovitch and Scarbrough hit triples to score three. They fell farther behind in each of the next four innings. They scored one run in the second and third innings but then were shut out in the next two. Meanwhile, Al's team scored five runs in the second, third, and fourth innings and four in the fifth. Extra base hits by Busch,Smith, Pepin, and Denny were the engine that drove the run production. In the sixth, Lakeland scored four with Klinkers triple the big hit. Al's team answered with two to hold on to the lead. Lakeland scored two more in the eighth, but lost ground as Winter Haven scored five off extra base hits by Gonzalez and Smith. Unable to score more than two runs in the eighth and down 29 to 10, the flip flop rule was invoked and they continued to bat. Unfortunately, they failed to score again. Final score Winter Haven 29, Lakeland 12.

Key performances

Russ King        3 for 4

Doug McClellan    3 for 4

Bernie Sterns      3 for 4

Sam Cuscovitch    5 for 5 with a triple

Don Scarbrough    5 for 5 with two triples

Migel Gonzalez      5 for 5 with a double and winning pitcher

Terry Smith            4 for 5 hitting for the cycle
Greg Denny            5 for 5 with a double        

Ron Pepin                 4 for 5 with a double

Bill McLellan            3 for 4 with a double

Game three saw Lakeland fall behind early and they never caught up. The team of Simmons, Bird, Chairo, Arbic, Hopper, Hartley, Thompson, Grabb, Kerr, Potonik, and Carpenter had numerous runners on base in the first three innings,  but were unable to score. The Winter Haven group did not fare much better as they only scored four runs during the same period. Larry Powell's double being the only extra base hit. In the fourth,Thompson hit a home run that scored two for Lakeland while Hite's and Reagan's doubles resulted in Winter Haven getting two of their own.

The fifth inning saw Lakeland get one back as John  Carpenter hit a triple and scored. Winter Haven went three and out. In the sixth, Dave Hartley reached base and scored for Lakeland, but they fell farther behind as Frank Jacobs hit a triple to help his team score four. The seventh saw Lakeland start strong with 4 of their first five batters reaching base and scoring. Three quick outs and the rally was over. Winter Haven managed to get their five runs rather quickly, as Hector M's triple cleared the bases. Down by seven, Lakeland brought it again as four of the first six batters reached base and scored. By holding Winter Haven to one run, they managed to close the gap to 12 to 16 and obviously within reach. Unfortunately they were unable to cross home plate in the ninth so the game ended with the score Winter Haven 16 and Lakeland 12.

Key Performances

j Simmons    4 for 5

D. Arbic        4 for 4

D Thompson    4 for 5

J Carpenter      3 for 4 with a triple

Steve Hill        3 for 4

Arvil Waddell    Winning Pitcher

Hector Marinacci    2 for 3 with a triple

Ron Thompson     4 for 4

Game 4 featured the dream teams.  Two teams anyone would like to sponsor in a tournament.  You would expect these two teams to put up a few runs, get shut out in very few innings and play some excellent defense. They didn't disappoint. If these two teams met 10 times, it would probably end with 5 wins each.

Lakeland posted 3 in the first on a huge Don Held shot over the right field fence but Winter Haven outscored them with 5 on a Juan Toro homer the hard way and some key hits.  Then Lakeland posted 5 in the second to only two for Winter Haven to take the lead at 8-7.

Winter Haven then shut out Lakeland in the 3rd and 4th with some excellent defense while posting a 5 run third capped by one in the 4th to go ahead 8-13. 

Lakeland plated 1 in the 5th and 5 in the 6th but then let Winter Haven put up 5 in the 6th to keep the gap to 4 runs at 14-18 after 6.

Winter Haven went ahead by 6 runs in the 7th inning but Lakeland used the catch-up rule in the 8th to lock up the score at 20-20 going into the ninth.

Lakeland then managed a 9 run rally to seemingly secure the win but Winter Haven wasn't done yet.  Nick Burns led off the inning with a single, then a series of doubles by Gazarek Brock, Giordano, Wolfe, and D'Herin brought Winter Haven within reach.  With DeRidder on third and D'Herin on second and one out, Ron Butler laced a single up the middle scoring them both to bring Winter Haven within one.  Now it's the team Captain's turn at the plate.  Freddy Gonzales rapped out a running double to move the winning run to third. With runners at second and third, Lakeland intentionally walked Larry Wells to load the bases, set-up the double-play and get the spectators on their feet. Then the guy of the hour, Nick Burns, who started the rally came up for the second time in the inning.  Nick had been hot all day going 3 for 4 up to that point and he didn't let the pressure get to him.  He swatted out a clean single to score Butler from third and Gonzalez from second for the game winner.  

Final Score Lakeland 29 to Winter Haven 30.

Winning Pitcher - Larry Wells (with 9th inning support by Rick Brock)

Key Hitters Included:

Winter Haven

Rivera      4 for 5

Gazarek   3 for 5 2-2b

Brock       4 for 5 2-2b, 2-3b

Giordano  3 for 5 2b

Wolfe        3 for 5 2b, 3b

DeRidder  4 for 5

D'Herin     4 for 4 bb, 2-2b,HR

Gonzalez  4 for 5 2b HR

Wells         3 for 5 2b

Burns        4 for 5

Lakeland

Cobb         4 for 5  SAC, 2-2b, 3b

DeFalco    4 for 6 2-2b

Finnegan   5 for 6

Held          3 for 5 bb, HR

Lewis        4 for 6

Matson      3 for 3 2-bb, 2b

Shaffer      4 for 5 2b

Hill             5 for 5

First Games back at the Diamond Plex

It was great to be back playing at the DiamondPlex again. The fields were in excellent condition given that we had about 12 hours of rain. The work the crew did in prepping for the National Womens Softball Tournament has really paid off as the fields are void of weeds in the outfield and the infield having been rebuilt, drains magnificently. Tomorrow we will show the boys from Lakeland how awesome our complex truly is. While hyping our field and crew I must say how much the BOD appreciated the Lakeland staff for allowing us to use the Southwest Complex during the tournament. Their crew worked hard to make sure we got to play despite poor weather, and gave us great fields to enjoy the game we love.

Rain threatened but held off long enough to get a cloud covered if windy game in.  We had over 65 players show up and thus three games going on in warm up for tomorrow's Lakeland vs Winter Haven games.  

If you're playing tomorrow, check the rosters after this post, be there at 8:30am wearing your grey shirt.  If you're not playing, just be there before 11:30 or so for lunch or if you want to watch the games, we start playing at about 9am. 

Servicemaster Field

The Visitors had Coffman, Gazarek, Toro, DeRidder, Giordano, Wiltshire, Brock, Drouilard, Rivera, Poke, and Pinnick playing against the Home squad of Gonzalez, Hamilton, Seguin, Wolfe, Busch, Witmer, Jacobson, Smith, Butler, Constantine, and Wells.  

As you can see by the lineups this game promised to be a slug-fest but as usual, what you see on paper often works out the opposite way.  While there certainly was some good hitting, there was also some excellent defense turned in, especially for the Home boys.  Ron Butler made a great diving catch of a dying quail in short right field, Tom Hamilton ran down a deep shot in the center-field gap and Brian Busch made several outstanding plays at 3rd base including a leaping grab of a hot liner to his back-hand side.  The Visitors also turned in a few nice plays including a nice 6-4-3 double play by Mike Wiltshire, Rick Brock and Gerry DeRidder.

The Home team gave up 1 run in the top of the first but then posted 4 of their own in the bottom half and never gave up the lead after that.  The closest the Visitors got was 8-9 after the top of the 5th inning but then the Home squad posted a 5 run 5th.  The Home Boys took care of business shutting out the Visitors in the 6th and 7th while posting 7 of their own.  

The Visitors attempted a late come back rally in the 8th putting up 6 runs but then went down 1-2-3 in the ninth to end the game there at 14-21.

Winning Pitcher was Larry Wells, who as usual, brought his own cheering (jeering) section. It's always more fun to be on Larry's team when he's got that going for him.

Leading hitters on the Day included:

Gonzalez  3 for 5
Hamilton 3 for 5 2B
Seguin 3 for 5 2-2B
Wolfe 5 for 5
Busch 4 for 5 2B, 3B
Witmer 3 for 4 2B,SAC
Jacobson 4 for 5
Butler 4 for 5 2-3B
Gazarek 3 for 5
Toro 2 for 3 2-2B, 2 SAC
Wiltshire 4 for 5
Brock 3 for 5 2B
Drouilard 3 for 4
Rivera 3 for 4

Gold's Gym Field

As I said, tomorrow we will host the Inter League Games . Today we had 67 ball players come out to work out the kinks and get their batting eye back. We had one American League game, one National League game, and one game with composite teams. The composite team played on Golds Gym field. The visitors  (Torres, Reagan, Lopez, Shaffer, Marino, Simon, McLellan, Andrews, Powell, Mills, Zakrowski, and Marinacci) were ably managed by Larry Powell and started strong by scoring the first two runners. That was all as they stranded three baserunners. The home team (M Gonzalez, Scarbrough, D'Herin, Jacobs, Denny, Zelazny, Carpenter, S Hill, D Hill, Harbaker, and LoPiccilo) were merely managed by Bob Z as despite his stacking the deck (ha ha) could not pull this out. They did start strong with five runs in the first, but they never reached that total again. With neither team scoring in the second, the score remained two to five. In the third the visitors again scored the first two runners but then were shut down. The home team managed to win the inning by scoring three.

In the next three innings, Larry's team scored 10 runs to take the lead as Bob's team managed a scant four runs during the same period. A double by Shaffer, a triple by McLellan, and a homer by Reagan provided the muscle for the visitors The seventh saw the home team tie up the game as the visitors were shut out and the home boys scored two. With the score tied the visitors recaptured the lead in the eighth when Larry Powell scored on Hectors single. The home team managed but one runner in their half of the eighth so were chasing one as we went into the last frame. Again the visitors started strong and it looked like the open inning could be a disaster for the home team but as fate would have it, after two runs the defense stepped up and got the last two  outs with the bases loaded. So it cam down to the home team and the top of their line up to get three runs for the victory. M Gonzalez did his part and got on and scored. After getting two more runners on, the magic was gone and  the game ended in a great one run game. Larry's visitors besting Bob Z's home team by one.

Key Performances

Raul Torres      4 for 5 with a double and triple

Bob Reagan    2 for 3 with a home run      

Denny Shaffer    4 for 5

Larry Powell        3 for 4 and winning pitcher

Art Zakrowski    4 for 4

Hector Marinacci    3 for 4

Miguel Gonzalez        5 for 5 with a double

Don Scarbrough        4 for 5 with a triple

Frank Jacobs            4 for 5

Duff Hill                    4 for 4   

 

Gatorland Field

Tuesday 25th of March and we are back home at the Diamond Plex Field at Polk College.  When we got up the am the weather was dark clouds and spotty showers, but the field was in good shape so the Play Ball call was sent out.  Right decision Commish.  Home team manager Jerry Witter and Visiting were busy making line ups.  

 

Home team consisted of Merritt, Fabian, Altemose, Kilne, Gisele Seguin, Morey, Bowley, Burns, Ayer, Lee Baker and Witter.  

 

Visitors had Moots, Penny Pelletier, Lautenschlager, Thompson, Taylor, Black, Barnes, McPartlin, LaMay, Gibson, J. Smith and F Miller. 

 

First inning with Gisele Seguin on the mound for the home team.  Moots, Pelletier, Lautenschlager, and Thompson had base hits.  After a fielders choice singles by Black, McPartlin and LaMay drove in the 5th run of the inning.  LaMay on the mound for the Visitors, Merritt lead off with a base hit, Kline singles but the inning ended on a hard hit ball for a force at 2nd to end the inning.  Both teams were scoreless in the second inning.  Moots leads off the third with a double down the left field corner, after an out, a walk and a fielder choice, Taylor and Black single and Barnes doubles in the gap knocking in the forth and final run of the inning.  Witter leads off the last of the 3rd with a single Merritt follows with another base hit.  Then 3 straight walks and two fielders choices bring in 2 run for the home team.  After 3 innings its Visitors 9 Home 2. 

 

Both teams went scoreless in the fourth.  The 5th starts with an error, then a single by Thompson a double by Taylor and a fly out to left.  Next was the best fielding play of the game.  McPartlin hit a pop fly toward second base, pitcher Gisele Seguin races over to make the catch and then dives in to first base to get the batter leading off.  Great play.  Walking man Baker does his thing leading off the last of the 5th, Witter singles, another walk to Merritt, a single for Fabian and some infield outs bring in 4 runs for the home team.  The Visitors tally 3 runs in each of the final 3 innings while the home team added 3 runs in the 7th.  Flip Flop rule in effect and the home team scores one in the 8th.  Final Score  Visitors 21  Home team 10.

 

Leading hitters Visitors

Moots 3 for 5

Lutenschlager 4 for 5

Taylor 4 for 5 with double and home run

Black 4 for 5

Barnes 3 for 5

LaMay 3 for 4

 

Leading hitter Home

Merritt 4 for 4

Kline 4 for 4 with walk

Ayer 2 for 3

Baker 1 for 2 with 2 walks

 

Submitted by Don LaMay

Rosters for Lakeland vs Winter Haven

OK, Freddy assures me that this is the right player list for tomorrow's games. Remember to be there early; 8:30am ... wear your Gray shirts ... bring your own cheerleaders.   There will be sub sandwiches for everyone (players and guests) after the games as well as drinks, and one heck of a party.  Even if you are not playing, come on out and socialize.

FGonzalez-mgr	AAndrews-mgr	LPowell-mgr	RMoots-mgr
JToro	SCuscovitch	SHill	RBarnes
JRivera	DScarborough	JByrd	FDucham
PDrouliard	GDenny	HOestereich	RDePalma
JLaffoon	BBusch	KCoffman	DHolder
BWolf	RPepin	BReagan	EBlack
CGiordano	LPatton	BHite	FMiller
LJacobson	MWiltshire	SLopez	BAyers
RBrock	TSmith	JCarpenter	GMorey
THamilton	BJackson	RThompson	RMarino
JD'herin	MGonzalez	JSimon	JGibson
RButler	RTorres	JAltemose	TTaylor
NBurns	BMcLellan	EKline	JWitter
FDampier	DSchafer	AWaddell	MBloom
LWells	HMarinacci	HLautenslager	SMichalski
Zelazny	GDeRidder	LFabian	RMills

Game ON!

Bobby Z reports that the fields are playable and that it's not currently raining.  There's still a chance that we'll have some rain later this morning but as of right now things are looking good.

Also please stay tuned for the line-ups and schedule for Wednesday's games.  That SNAFU should be fixed this morning so please check the web page later today for info on the Lakeland vs Winter Haven Games.

See you at the DiamondPlex.

Ron